Claude Rich Movies

Ni Vu, Ni Connu (Neither Seen Nor Recognized) is built around the talents of rubber-faced Gallic comedian Louis De Funes. Our hero is a poacher in a small provincial village, who always manages to stay one step ahead of the Law. Through a fluke, De Funes finds himself the town's Leading Citizen when he is falsely arrested on another charge, forcing the village elders to bend over backwards making amends. Director Yves Robert anticipates such 1960s helmsmen as Clive Donner and Richard Lester by periodically speeding up the action in the manner of a silent movie. Adding spice to the proceedings is curvaceous actress-dancer Noelle Adam, who went on to a desultory American career as a protégé of actor-producer Keefe Brasselle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Focusing more on the personalities of the characters involved, Michel Deville in his first solo directing effort, has created a "New Wave"-style, slightly strident, routine romantic comedy. Set in an apartment where budding thespians are about to put on a show, the narration slips from view as the casual, roaming eye of the camera catches the couples dancing, talking, and flirting with each other. Valerie (Anna Karina) is particularly determined to end up with the man she wants. Françoise Dorleac makes an early appearance here as one of the young women. She was Catherine Deneuve's sister, killed in a 1967 automobile accident. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This standard comedy was one of the last films by director René Clair, who began his career in 1922! The story deals with two real-estate developers who try to buy up one particular town noted for the long life of its residents. A nearby spring may have something to do with their longevity, and the real-estate men plan on exploiting the concept for all its worth. But there are problems. One of the local men decides he is never going to sign over his property to anyone. The land developers try all kinds of tricks to finish up their deal but so much of what they do backfires -- even when it looks like the final signing has arrived. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The eponymous French corporal, played by Jean-Pierre Cassel, is ensconced in a German POW camp. Cassel plots with his friends Claude Brasseur and Claude Rich to escape, but all three are recaptured. When the corporal plans another getaway, he finds that one of his chums isn't interested anymore. After a brief liaison with the daughter of a German dentist, Cassel once more tries to break out...and once more...and once more. Finally free from his captors, Cassel joins the resistance with his loyal pal Brasseur. The Elusive Corporal was a return to the themes of freedom and personal dignity inherent in Jean Renoir's earlier La Grande Illusion (1938); alas, Renoir had very little control over the final cut of the later film, and tended to dismiss the whole project as a mere "entertainment" in his declining years, though he remained proud of his closing panorama shot of Paris, which wordlessly expressed the euphoria of freedom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in an old German castle where an elderly paterfamilias lies on his deathbed, this conventional murder mystery by director Julien Duvivier has a veneer of the supernatural about it. As the heirs to the dying man's estate come together at the castle, a woman among them stands out for her heritage. It so happens that an ancestor of the dying man betrayed one of her long-dead female relatives, and after the old man finally dies, the woman starts having strange visions. At the same time, it begins to look like the old man did not die a natural death, but was in fact, murdered. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This crime comedy finds ex-gangster Fernand (Lino Ventura) receiving a call from a dying friend, a mob boss nicknamed "The Mexican" (Jacques Dumesnil). The doomed mobster talks Fernand into taking care of some criminal business and looking after his soon-to-be-married daughter (Sabine Sinjen). When a longtime mobster heavy, Volfoni (Bernard Blier) takes exception to Fernand for being an outsider, they come after Fernand who is equal to the task. He defends himself in a series of comical killings from the onslaught of the mob. Writer Albert Simonin adapted this comedy from his book Grisby or Not Grisby, with sharp dialogue written by Michel Audiard. Both Simonin and Audiard would later work on director Georges Lautner's Les Barbouzes/The Great Spy Chase which, along with Les Tontons Flingueurs, would again feature actors Francis Blanche, Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

French film star Michele Morgan plays a reclusive Parisian music teacher. She gets her jollies by peeking through her window and witnessing the romantic liaisons of her female neighbor. When the girl is strangled by one of her lovers, the killer (Simon Andreau) hides out in Michele's apartment. The widow is turned on by the dangerous eroticism of the situation, and soon becomes the murderer's lover. A blackmailer (Claud Rich) extracts a great deal of money from the errant Morgan, whereupon it is revealed that the "murder victim" (Dany Saval) is very much alive and part of the extortion scheme. Morgan's vengeance is delicious to behold--and this being a foreign film, she actually gets away with it. Jean-Pierre Ferriere adapted his own novel for the screenplay of Web of Fear, which was originally issued in France as Constance aux Enfers and simultaneously in Spain as Un Balcon Sobre el Infierno. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This French version of the notorious spy's life centers less on her romantic escapades, and more on those that reveal the person she actually was during WW I when her German superiors ordered her to seduce the French captain Trintignant so she can steal classified papers from him. Instead she falls in love with him, blows the cover, and ends up convicted of espionage and shot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In 1944, with Paris on the verge of Liberation by the allies, Adolph Hitler ordered that the City of Light be blown up and burned to the ground. General Dietrich Von Choltitz, after much rumination, decided that he didn't want to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris. His refusal to follow Hitler's orders would make him a pariah in Germany for the rest of his life; nor was his gesture ever rewarded by the Allies. From this very human story in the midst of one of the most inhuman conflicts in history grew the screenplay (by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola) of the all-star, internationally produced Is Paris Burning? Whereas the earlier The Longest Day was able to support a castful of celebrities and brief subplot vignettes, Is Paris Burning? seems more weighted down than weighty. Still, a modern audience will have fun playing "spot the star" throughout the film, especially when those spotted stars include the likes of Gert Frobe (as Choltitz), Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas (as Patton), Glenn Ford (as Bradley), Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack, and even Anthony Perkins as a wide-eyed GI. Filmed on a gargantuan scale, Is Paris Burning? was based on a book by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre. The film was lensed in black and white, save for the Technicolor finale (in the original road-show prints). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Matou is an innocuous, gentle-looking man. He is married to a formidable, even a frightening woman, who is as dissatisfied with him as he is with her. He knows everything there is to know about restoring and authenticating manuscripts, particularly ancient ones, through his job at the museum. One day, it occurs to him that his skills could be put to use in a more personal way, and he embarks on a private career of re-arranging the documents of people who have had the misfortune to be married to the wrong people. When a policeman client of his seeks to unmask Matou's activities, he discovers that the power of the meek-looking man's unassailable documentation is greater than he had imagined. Even when the police are truly on his trail, there is little they can do. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this provocative sci-fi drama from Alain Resnais, a man wakes up in a hospital after an attempted suicide. He has invented a time machine that has proven effective, but only transports the subject back in time for one minute. Upon his release, he gets his hands on the machine to go back to a time he fondly remembers spending with a woman he apparently has feelings about. The two stroll on the beach before she leaves for Scotland. He follows her, but tragedy ensues and it is not clear if he has killed her or if she died an accidental death. The time-machine angle of the film features a dreamlike series of flashbacks making it unclear if the action is presently unfolding or is merely a vague memory from the past. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide